A Son Returns to Remind the Russians

Published: September 27, 1993

MOSCOW, Sept. 26—
The biggest crowd in Moscow in months gathered in Red Square today to welcome a returning son of Russia.

Mstislav Rostropovich, the cellist and conductor, who was exiled from the Soviet Union almost two decades ago, was leading the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington in an outdoor performance of the finale to "Alexander Nevsky" by Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," complete with booming cannon fire and the Kremlin bells ringing.

An estimated 100,000 people packed the square, many craning their necks to glimpse the conductor's halo of white hair above the crowd.

Mr. Rostropovich has resumed his role as a hero here after the long hiatus of exile. With uncanny timing, he has been in Russia during its greatest recent crises, first joining Boris N. Yeltsin during the failed coup of August 1991, then coming to cast a vote in the April 1993 referendum on Mr. Yeltsin's reforms, and finally now, as the Russian President is locked in a struggle with the leadership of Parliament.

Mr. Rostropovich, with a rapid-fire tempo, spoke with equal passion about music and politics during an interview after the rehearsal for the orchestra's opening concert at the Moscow Conservatory of Music, where the conductor and cellist taught for 26 years.

"Why is there a concert in Red Square?" Mr. Rostropovich said. "I want people to feel proud that they are Russian. People need to be given the chance to be proud of themselves.

"Russians need to be reminded at times like this that they're a great people. Events disrupt things a little sometimes, but listening to this music is a reminder that there's a great nation here."

Mr. Rostropovich was exiled in 1974 after siding with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose "Gulag Archipelago" and other exposes of the Soviet penal system led the Kremlin to expel him that year.

"The Russian people were completely betrayed for 70 years, and now we're beyond this," Mr. Rostropovich said. "We've matured, all except for those who are hanging on to their privileges by their teeth and dream of the day when they can shoot whoever doesn't agree with them."

"Now 80 percent of the people are with Yeltsin," he said, chopping the air with his hand.

The current political battle transformed the concert, planned as a free cultural offering to Russians who had neither the money nor the connections to get tickets for the orchestra's performances in the Conservatory, into a good-humored show of defiance of the hard-liners in the Parliament building across town. Shortly before the music started, Mr. Yeltsin waded into the crowd to shake hands. Young Solzhenitsyn Performs

But despite the political crisis, Mr. Rostropovich has a cultural mission in the former Soviet Union. During the tour of Moscow, St. Petersburg and the three Baltic republics, he is introducing new Russian music and musicians from exile.

He has brought with him Ignat Solzhenitsyn, a young pianist whose talent he described as "astounding." The son of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, he was born in 1972 in Mr. Rostropovich's home in Moscow, where the author took refuge with his family from the persecution of the state.

Ignat Solzhenitsyn joined the orchestra at the opening concert at the Conservatory on Saturday night, playing Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1.

The audience, which overflowed into the aisles and stairways, applauded heartily. Young girls leaned over the balcony to shout "Ignat! Ignat!" while others ran up to present flowers.

"It's deeply thrilling to be here," said Mr. Solzhenitsyn, who was in Moscow for the first time since he was driven out of Russia with his family at the age of 18 months. "Not a day has gone by that we have not thought about coming back."

Photo: About 100,000 people crowded into Red Square yesterday to see Mstislav Rostropovich, who was exiled by the Soviets in 1974, conduct the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington during a free concert. (Associated Press)